Sam Kendricks Remembered for Service to Swimming Community at U.S. Nationals
Prior to the Friday evening finals session at U.S. Nationals in Irvine, Calif., longtime meet announcer Sam Kendricks was honored with a short photo montage and a moment of silence. Kendricks passed away earlier this month at the age of 59 after a nine-month battle with Merkel Cell Carcinoma. Kendricks had announced top USA Swimming championship meets for two decades, including at five Olympic Trials (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016), and he also was the primary announcer for other meets including the NCAA Division I swimming championships for a decade.
Kendricks was once an undergraduate student manager for the University of Texas men’s team, an assistant coach for the Texas women’s team and a club coach in Arkansas. Most recently, he worked as a residential realtor in Los Alamos, New Mexico. But within swimming community, Kendricks was best known for his enthusiastic calls of major swimming races. Kendricks reserved his primary catchphrase, “BOOM-SHAKA-LAKA,” for the most impressive of swims. As an announcer, Kendricks hoped to showcase each swimmer in a way that would make their experience at the meet as positive as possible.
In the video at Nationals honoring Kendricks, USA Swimming showed a clip from Katie Ledecky’s world-record setting swim in the 400 freestyle in the same pool in Irvine eight years earlier. Kendricks was on the mic that evening as he urged the crowd to cheer Ledecky to the finish as she set the first world record of her career in the event.
